Open Differentials

There are different types of differentials and the simplest type will be discussed here. This type of differential is called open differential. To understand it well, we needed an illustration.

Let’s say a car is driving straight down the road. Both its wheels are spinning at the same speed. The ring gear and cage is turned by the input pinion. None of the pinions that is within the cage are rotating. Both fo the side gears are locked effectively to the cage.

Take note that the input pinion is smaller gear as compared to the ring gear. This is the car’s last gear reduction. You may have heard of the final drive ration or rear axle ration before. These are gear ratios in the differential. If final drive ratio is equal to 4.10, then that means that the ring gear has 4.10 times teeth as the input pinion gear.

Once that the car starts to turn, the wheels will then spin at varying speed.As you can see, differentials are a very important part of a truck and if you need rear differential repair, you need to get help from an expert in this field because this is a complex part.